What Functions Does the General Staff Have and Who Has Led It During Pashinyan's Government

After a statement released by the General Staff of the Armed Forces, tensions surrounding this body have not abated.

What is the General Staff and what functions does it perform? The administrative apparatus of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia was established on January 26, 2009. The General Staff is a state body operating within the framework of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia, responsible for developing and implementing the government’s policy in the field of defense assigned to it.

The General Staff is the central body of military governance of the Armed Forces, which is directly responsible for the implementation of the functions of the Armed Forces.

Armdaily.am has presented who has led the General Staff since 2018. The first head of the General Staff was Aris Brutyan, who has held the position of Head of the Organizational Department of the General Staff since October 10, 2019.

At the time of the regime change in 2018, the position of the head of the General Staff was held by Movses Hakobyan, who was appointed to this position on October 3, 2016. He was relieved of his duties as head of the General Staff by the decision of the Prime Minister of Armenia on May 24, 2018, and appointed as the Chief Military Inspector.

Movses Hakobyan was replaced in the position of Chief of the General Staff by Artak Davtyan. He served from May 24, 2018, until June 8, 2020, resigning at his own request. According to press reports, he was relieved of this position to organize his son's wedding during the coronavirus pandemic.

On June 8, 2020, at the suggestion of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, President Armen Sarkissian appointed Onik Gasparyan as the Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Armenia. Pashinyan later dismissed Onik Gasparyan for attempting a military coup and interfering in political processes. The President initially sent back the dismissal of Onik Gasparyan to the Prime Minister with objections, but after it was justified by the Prime Minister's office, it was sent back to the presidential office again. Since the President neither signed it nor referred it to the Constitutional Court, the Prime Minister announced after the expiration of a three-day deadline that Onik Gasparyan had been relieved of his duties by the force of law.

Onik Gasparyan appealed to the administrative court to contest his dismissal.

After the dismissal of Onik Gasparyan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that he had proposed to President Armen Sarkissian to appoint former head Artak Davtyan to the position of Head of the General Staff. The President sent it back to the government with objections, and the government stated that it would send it back to the presidential office again with justifications.

It should be noted that the performance of the duties of the Head of the General Staff has been temporarily entrusted to the Deputy Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Armenia, Lieutenant General Stepan Galstyan.